Colombia Ends Decade-Long Carry Ban

Colombians with concealed carry permits can finally use them, after a decade-plus suspension that stripped legal gun owners of the right to carry while criminals faced no such restriction.

What happened: President Abelardo de la Espriella signed a decree ending the general suspension on carry permits that former president Juan Manuel Santos imposed in December 2015. That ban was originally sold as a temporary, month-long measure. It lasted more than ten years.

Catch up quick:

• Colombia has never recognized a constitutional right to keep and bear arms — carry itself only became legal via presidential decree in the early 1990s.
• Santos's 2015 order flipped that default, making prohibition the standing rule and permits functionally worthless.
• De la Espriella campaigned on reversing the ban and is now delivering on that promise.

The licensing gauntlet Colombians still face is no small thing. Applicants must be at least 25, pass a criminal background check, submit medical and psychological fitness certificates, and demonstrate theoretical knowledge of firearms handling — all before a military authority signs off on a permit tied to one specific firearm. Carry any other gun, even legally owned, and you're not covered.

By the numbers: The application alone runs more than $400 in a country where per capita income sits around $8,500 — a cost equivalent to nearly two months' average income just to exercise self-defense on paper, before ammunition, training, or the firearm itself.

What they're saying: De la Espriella framed the decree as restoring balance, not deregulating guns. "There is no reason for criminals to be armed to the teeth while decent people cannot defend themselves," he said, adding that "strict controls, requirements, and permits from the competent authorities remain in place."

"What ends is the general suspension that turned the prohibition into the rule."

Yes, but: nothing here creates a durable right. Colombia's carry framework exists entirely at the pleasure of the president in office. De la Espriella lifted the ban by decree; a future president could reinstate it by decree just as easily, with no constitutional backstop to stop them. The requirements — age floor, medical exams, fitness assessments, steep fees — also stay fully intact, meaning the average Colombian still faces real financial and bureaucratic barriers to lawful carry.

What gun owners here should take from this: it's a live reminder of what "good cause" and may-issue regimes look like when carried to their logical conclusion — permits that exist on paper but can be suspended wholesale, indefinitely, by executive fiat. Colombia's system is what critics of California-style licensing point to as the ceiling on that model, not the floor.

The bottom line: Colombia just restored the ability to carry after ten years of paper-only permits, but with no constitutional right underneath it, that ability rests on one president's decree — and could vanish on the next one's.